State utility firm SEC has said it planned to invest the funds in the 10 years to 2018 to boost capacity to at least 80,000 megawatts by 2020 from an installed capacity of 50,000 megawatts now.

“We revised in 2010 and we made many projects earlier than planned,” Ali Saleh Al-Barrak said.

He said the company will stick to its investment program for the time being but could revise it in 2013.

“We will look at this amount, this amount could change based on the market prices.”

The Gulf Arab kingdom will continue its $400 billion state investment plan — the world’s biggest stimulus relative to GDP — until 2013 as planned, its finance minister said in January.

“Plans have been accelerated. In fact we have to accelerate some of our projects and make them come earlier than planned because of the economic growth and the government’s decision to build more infrastructure projects.”

The firm plans to launch bidding for the second phase of expansion of its Qurayyah power plant soon, Al-Barrak said, while it is now in the process of selecting the preferred bidder for the first phase of the 1,800-2,100 MW Qurayyah IPP-1.

Demand for power in the Kingdom is expected to grow 8 to 9 percent this year compared to around 10 percent a year earlier, Al-Barrak said.

Government officials have repeatedly said that demand for power was forecast to triple to 120 gigawatts by 2030 in line with an expected rise in domestic fuel consumption to 8.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2028.

Al-Barrak declined to comment on the rise of the fuel used to fire their power plants.

The country’s deputy electricity minister, Saleh Al-Awaji told Reuters last month with the new expansion in power capacity, Saudi Arabia would burn more crude this year without giving figures.

SEC’s generation capacity stands at around 48,000 megawatts while demand is now 26,000 MW, he said.

During the summer, demand would rise to 46 gigawatts but the company would still have a reserve margin of 2 GW, said Al-Barrak.

Gulf countries have similar patterns of consumption, which sees demand peak in the summer.

They have taken measures to connect their grids in an effort to stave off shortages.

“We don’t expect any shortage in the summer in the generation side.”